'Violent' African pirates threaten shipping

[dArKeR]

By Dave Clark

Lagos - Foreign sailors working on Africa's ship routes face increasing danger from attacks by heavily armed pirates, experts say, calling for the continent's police and navies to work harder to stamp them out.

In anchorages, estuaries and even on the high seas, gangs are hijacking vessels, robbing, beating and kidnapping their crews and costing the industry millions of rands in insurance, lost cargoes and ransom payments.

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, head of the International Chamber of Commerce's piracy reporting centre, said that, in 2003, attacks in Nigerian waters alone tripled in number and became more and more violent.

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